Both the Maple Leafs and Sabres alumni were saddened to learn of the death two weeks ago of Ron Smith, assistant coach to the late Roger Neilson when the latter worked both sides of the QEW rivalry in the late 1970s.

Smith, a native of Galt, Ont. (present day Cambridge) who was 72, was as much a proponent of video and an early form of analytics as the cerebral Neilson. In addition to making a couple of stops with Neilson, Smith was an assistant with the New Jersey Devils and ran the New York Rangers after Neilson was let go halfway through the 1992-93 season.

He also was head coach at York University, made a couple of IHL and AHL stops, and was the first technical director of the Ontario Hockey Association, overseeing a coaching certification program, He was director of player personnel for the Canadian Olympic Program at one time. As a player, he won the Allan Cup with the Galt Hornets in 1969 and 1971.

But Smith is also known for his prowess in baseball. The six-foot infielder, who was playing in the Inter-County League in 1964, caught the eye of the San Francisco Giants. The club sent him to rookie ball in Magic Valley, Idaho, near Twin Falls. As good friend and former Jays scout Ed Heather told the Canadian Baseball Network, Smith looked at his hand-me-down Giants uniform on his first day and found the legendary Willie Mays’ name on the ID tag inside.

Smith might have stayed longer in baseball, but newly married, he wanted to come home to attend the University of Waterloo.

EVEN KEEL

Auston Matthews quickly is discovering what life on the blue-and-white roller coaster is really like in hockey-crazed Toronto, where public perception often portrays the Leafs as going from the outhouse to the penthouse, back and forth, up and down, often in the same week.

“We were going through a stretch where we weren’t winning games and people were saying we were going to be another lottery pick,” Matthews said. “Now we’re in the playoffs so now we’re a playoff team. We’re halfway through the season now. There’s a lot of ups and downs and we just have to move forward and get better.”

SABRE RATTLING

Jack Eichel reminded the media Monday that a Sabres team motto for this season is never lose two in a row.

The team has been beaten five times back to back in regulation, though it never has had a prolonged slump.

“We have to start making that (motto) more of a reality,” Eichel said. “Standings-wise, we don’t like where we’re at.

“There’s too much inconsistency in our game. Such as (Monday, Buffalo’s 4-1 win over Dallas) we did a lot of good things, we go on through streaks of three or four good games, then drop a few. You miss out on points and in this league, you can’t do that.”

TIME OUT

Leafs head coach Mike Babcock was not about to speculate whether he is ahead or behind the Sabres in terms of each club’s timetable to rebuild.

“I don’t spend a whole lot of time concerning myself with the other teams. We’re building our own product here and we have a lot of work to do. We’re 41 games in. I tried to tell my players that, let’s just try and get better today. We’re trying to build the individual players and the team to be good, so you know in the summer when you’re coming to the fall, you’re going to make the playoffs.”

LOOSE LEAFSRobin Lehner, Buffalo’s starting goaltender on Tuesday, played on back-to-back days for the first time since being acquired in the summer of 2015 in a trade with the Senators. Lehner stopped 31 of 32 Dallas shots Monday … Former Maple Leafs defenceman Cody Franson played his 500th NHL game Tuesday and his 100th as a Sabre. Franson was in 236 games with the Leafs from 2011 to 2015 … When injured Martin Marincin changed to a regular defenceman’s black jersey at the morning skate on Tuesday, some wondered if his recovery from a lower body injury had been accelerated. No, said Babcock, he had just tired of seeing him singled out dressed in red.

This Week's Flyers

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